How To Survive A Film Festival: KOFFIA 2013

IF you’ve never been to a film festival before or if you’re about to visit one for the first time, Hieu Chau has gathered different perspectives on how one can survive at a film festival – from this year’s Korean International Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA).

Planning on going to a film festival soon? Depending on the type of film festival you’re going to, it can become rather tricky to navigate the program when you have a full day of films ahead of you and are spared little to no time in between to find food or mentally prepare yourself accordingly.

Though smaller film festivals often give an adequate amount of time in between sessions, bigger, more well-known film festivals tend to have tight turn-around times which can be difficult if you’re extremely keen to see more than one film in the day. This is especially true at some of the more extravagant film festivals – like the Melbourne International Film Festival, for example.

I spoke to several people at this year’s KOFFIA – from artistic directors to audience members – each of whom offered different perspectives and tips on what they like to do in order to survive film festivals, big and small.